Thursday, December 1, 2011

Good Jeebuz! Three men were arrested last night after a four-hour, two-county crime spree that involved 12 victims, including a man stripped naked, another man shot in the eye and the leg, and a wrecked Lincoln Continental.

The prosecution rested yesterday in the robo-call case, after Julius Henson's employee Rhonda Russell, who recorded the "relax, everything's fine" message, offered the lamest excuses ev. er., testifying that the calls were "reverse psychology ... I was told this call would stimulate whoever wanted to vote for Mr. Ehrlich." Never mind that the calls went only to Democrats or that Russell's notes included the phrase "suppress turnout in black communities." Not every member of the black community is horrified by this, though. Wrote Mr. Hassan MrPolitics Giordano on the Facebooks, "First their aim was at Julius (Henson), and still is quite frankly; now they're looking 2 hang Frank Conaway?! I guess an outspoken black man who doesn't have 2 rely on them 2 gain fortune & fame better learn their place huh?! SMDH...#BlackMan'sRights??"

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Drug dealer, convicted double-murderer and amateur lawyer Anthony Grandison is headed to the Court of Appeals* for the sixth time. Grandison is currently on death row for hiring Vernon Evans to kill David Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy in April of 1983.

Fenton and Hermann follow up on TAB's tip that Darnell Kinlaw, charged with car theft in the Annie McCann case as a teenager, has now been arrested for killing Lakeisha Player and stealing her car*. Kinlaw was apparently out of jail due to the magic of concurrent sentences and credit for time served.

And another murder arrest, Jerome Burgess Jr.*, 19, has been charged in the murder of 25-year-old Tavon Toney, who was robbed and killed walking on Franklin St. Incredibly, reports Fenton, this is Burgess' fifth arrest this year.

Greenmount Avenue merchants worry about crime. Remember when you could go there after dark, get a Pupu platter at Uncle Lee's and browse for books at the bookstore across the street? Old person sigh ...

The Sun has updates on another murder arrest alongside that of Jerome Burgess Jr. Arrested for the murder of Lakeisha Player was Darnell Kinlaw Jr., 21. *

If the name Darnell Kinlaw sounds familiar, it might be because of his peculiar involvement in the Annie McCann case. McCann, if you don't remember, was a 16-year-old girl who ran away from her Virgina home, only to end up dead in a trash can in Southeast Baltimore. Kinlaw's involvement in the case only revolved around his having been charged with stealing her car. Those charges were later dropped, much to the chagrin of McCann's parents.

One has to wonder if a man already accused of a murder of one woman might have had a larger-than-thought-of role in the death of Annie McCann. That is, of course, all speculation. What isn't speculation is the fact that Darnell Kinlaw was in no way supposed to be free at the time of the alleged murder of Player. He had been sentenced to 3 years and 4 years, respectively, in two different cases in January of 2011. Even with prior time served and parole after having served half of his sentence, there is still no reason why he would be released any earlier than early-to-mid 2012. A shame all around.

Monday, November 28, 2011

... so what did I miss, Baltimore?
It looks like police arrested one Alvin Ray Wright Sr.*, 48, for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in an abandoned rowhouse on N. Caroline Street in October. He doesn't have a record of prior sex offenses, just drug and car-theft charges, but DNA evidence implicated his evil ass after his sample was given high priority in the testing queue.

The Conaway/Meister drama continues, and here's a nugget that will make you crap a book on how to puke: Conaway's lawyer J. Wyndal Gordon says Conaway is being investigated because both Meister and Bernstein are Jewish*: "When you have a situation where you have a Jewish victim and an African-American male, you have things happen differently than if it happened to be a regular case ... perhaps because of their commonality in their religion."

Ehrlich aides' robocall trial kicks off today. Hilariously, the wife of the judge in the case got one of the calls, but Judge Lawrence Fletcher Hill says that won't affect his judgment.

Bernstein has hired a young hotshot to do some prosecutin' up in the state's attorney's office*, heading up a division that is "new" and "major." His notable achievements so far include attending basketball games, making a baby, and encouraging prosecutors to paint their offices (with coveralls over their suits, one hopes).